CITES - Ethical trade in exotic leather products

Exotic leather products made from special species such as alligator, caiman, crocodile, python, lizard and shark. This applies to all reptiles. These and others require a CITES certificate to be legally imported into Norway. You must have an import license for legal import.

CITES stands for "Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of wild fauna and flora" - the Endangered Species Act of 1973, which most countries in the world follow. In Norway, the Norwegian Environment Agency, headquartered in Trondheim, are the experts in this area; see the list at Miljødirektoratet. Bredal & Partnere currently imports exotic leather goods only from the USA. Many leather goods are transfer goods from other countries, but all products are checked by US. Fish and Wildlife Service in Washington.

They have local representatives who come to the factories and seal as well as hand over the packages directly to Fed EX / UPS Global service for shipment to Norway.

The USA has by far the best procedures in this area in the world and is a model for how regulations should be enforced and vulnerable animal species protected. For example, American alligators were protected for 20 years while a natural and deliberate model for the species' distribution and long-term survival was developed. Today there are more than 1 million wild alligators in Louisiana and over 1 million wild alligators in Florida. At the same time, there are over 300,000 alligators spread across more than 50 farms. 10% of all farmed alligators are released every other year. The skin mainly goes to Asia and some to France and Italy as well as Russia. The meat is healthy and, when properly prepared, tastes like a mix of chicken and shrimp. This is also a major industry. There is no CITES on ostrich, bison and ray.

See Louisiana's Alligator Advisory Council video here: Alligator Advisory Council video